Sunday, March 22, 2015

Singapore - A Food Journey to the FarEast

The jewel of the far east , a confluence of traditions and cultures, an international business hub, central point for flight layovers, Asia's New York ,there are many ways by which you can define Singapore
An island-country and a city-state, Singapore has charmed and enthralled its visitors for decades
A magical city that literally offers something for everyone.

So if you begin to list out the things that make Singapore stand out and really special , here's what you might probably come up with

When i quizzed my friends on their knowledge about Singapore, they came up with the basic known facts like Sentosa Island, Cheaper electronics prices, Shopper's Delight, Best Asian destination for vacation/honeymoon and so on. But surprisingly none of them happened to talk about the main speciality.

So what was missing here? Something so special and unique to Singapore,
that may not available or even sourced from anywhere else? Yes, you guessed it right . Its Food !! A little known fact about Singapore is that its home to several hundred varieties of food and can serve as a gastronomical delight to all its visitors.

Singapore Food Trail

The geographical position of Singapore has a tremendous influence in its cuisines as it sources different things from different countries.As time progressed, these cuisines became part of the original Singapore cuisine and became one global pyramid. So its obvious that when one refers to Singapore food , this includes broadly: Chinese,Malay (one of the primary ancestor of Singapore Cuisine) , Indian, Thai, Vietnam and of course the Western/European foods. Rather than being isolated amidst the enormity of the differences,Singapore has actually seen different cuisines come together to form an integrated chain
So don't be surprised when you see a Chinese guy pouring Indian spices into his noodles or Indian chef preparing Fried rice mixing with a Thai ingredient to form a truly Asian delicacy

Grains of different countries Flock together - In Singapore

(Source : http://passportpantry.com/recipes/world-cuisine/)

So when I had a chance to visit Singapore a few years back , I didn't miss the chance to experience this gastronomical delight and went on food tours exploring the different food options in Singapore
Food is taken very seriously like an obsession, so much so , that it's declared as a National past-time in Singapore

Based on everything that I had tried, I have listed some of the foods that I have taken a particular liking to and would also encourage my readers to try it out sometime

Enjoy a short video below of some of the famous foods of Singapore

Source of images : From my own collection and Images from yoursingapore.com

The Perfect Singaporean Mail - A 4 Course Lunch

Appetizer
To begin with , any lunch begins with a very crispy starter and here I'm opting for a Singaporean styled Singapore roll ,which is less on the oil but tends towards the salad variety and very tasty too